I saw a very bright light in the sky that passed and then "shot off into space."

I was outside on my front porch, just smoking a cigarette. I'm one to gaze at the stars and simply enjoy the night sky. I sat looking at the stars and then it seemed as though one was moving kind of slowly across the sky. This did not look like a plane because it almost looked like a "bright star" was moving slowly across the sky. Then all of a sudden it seemed to "turn" torward me, and the only reason I say this 'light' 'turned' is because the light became a lot brighter and it looked almost like a huge spotlight was being turned rather quickly to an observer(me)...but the light not not shine far out. It was just a very bright light that 'turned' in a sense and sat for about 5 seconds and suddenly the object began to appear dimmer and dimmer. It seemed like although the object was "flying into space" at a very rapid speed. It simmed very quickly and soon the object was not visible, AT ALL. The was no doubt a UFO front my perspective. I watched it fly into space and away from the earth! I could not believe this. I would like to gain more information on what I saw and if there were any other witnesses in this area.